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The Amazing Language of Medicine pp 173–195Cite as

Medical Words with Intriguing Origins

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Abstract

Many medical terms come to us from curious sources: from celestial influence, the length of the forearm, an unnamed artery, and a disease your friends diagnose. Words with intriguing origins include names of diseases, drugs, microorganisms, and antimicrobials. There are also medical euphemisms, terms introduced to avoid saying words like feces and gonorrhea. More recent additions to our lexicon are medical acronyms for syndromes such as PANDAS and for research study titles such as the ALaCaRT or the PROGRESS study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland, OR, USA

    Robert B. Taylor MD (Professor Emeritus, Professor)

  2. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Robert B. Taylor MD (Professor Emeritus, Professor)

Authors
  1. Robert B. Taylor MD
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Taylor, R.B. (2017). Medical Words with Intriguing Origins. In: The Amazing Language of Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50328-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50328-8_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50327-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-50328-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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